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Tend to agree. last time I went there must be 7-8 years ago in Maidstone. Found the layout confusing and jumbled and very untidy. I did buy a coffee at one of their motorway outlets more recently. It was vastly overpriced, I forgave them for that as it is par for the course in motorway services.blythburgh wrote: ↑Wed Feb 06 2019 11:14amThat I have not bought from for years. There is a branch in Southwold were we go regularly but even so not been inside their shop in years and never online.
This has been their strategy for some years now. And in fact it's where they began. They very quickly obtained a de facto monopoly as station bookstalls and have retained that ever since, now expanded with airports, motorway services, etc.blythburgh wrote: ↑Wed Feb 06 2019 11:43amI can see them closing many town shops and keeping open places like train stations...
I’m not so sure. WHS responded early to the shift online - they’re credited with making the first online sale in the UK, they got out of music 20 years ago and cut back significantly on books.endangered high street breeds
Time will tell but I hope you are right...pabenny wrote: ↑Wed Feb 06 2019 3:06pmI’m not so sure. WHS responded early to the shift online - they’re credited with making the first online sale in the UK, they got out of music 20 years ago and cut back significantly on books.endangered high street breeds
They now make over half of their profit from their travel stores. And in the high street, much of their range today is lower-value immediate-gratification items that are less vulnerable to online. To judge from those in my area, they’ve ‘right-sized’ their stores and run them on very low staffing. I see WHS as a surivior.
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